94 



The Country Gcntkmajis Magazine 



lllamblcG bij 



lioat), 



|il\3CV, 



anti Hail 



GALA WATER. 



T-ROM Edinburgh to Tweedside is now a minutely the progressive stages toward the 



r short and easy journey, very different present high style of cuhivation. Meanwhile, we 



from the time when the Selkirk carrier occupied " wind about and in and out," followmg pretty 



a fortni-ht in the pilgrimage to the Scottish much the curves of the nver, till we reach the 



metropolis and back to his native Yarrow. Very busy little town of Galashiels 

 different, also, from the year 1757, when Thomas 



For many excellences, including its braw lads, 

 its grey cloth, and its checked plaidings, Gala- 

 shiels has been celebrated, and it is now one of 

 the thriving manufacturing towns of the Border. 

 Long may its manufactories flourish, for agricul- 

 tural prosperity is now conjoined with commerce, 

 so that one cannot flourish while the other de- 

 But in agricultural annals Galashiels will 



Somcrville, afterwards minister of Jedburgh, 

 could hire a man with a couple of horses, and 

 make the journey from Edinburgh to Hawick in 

 two days at a total cost of 7s. lod., disbursed as 

 follows :— " To the horses, 2s. ; to the servant, 

 IS. ; to corn at Hougate, 8d. ; to rolls, id. ; to 

 the 'turnpike, 2d. ;— (all night at Traquair)— to 

 corn, IS. ; to straw, 6d. ; to eating, is. sd. ; to 

 corn at Hawick, is." From Edinburgh to Tra- 

 quair was then a long day's journey, but now the 

 valley of the Tweed, from Peebles to Inner- 

 leithen, is a favourite summer residence for 



Edinburgh citizens, who can reach the city in ,wu . 1 1 . u • r 



time for business in the morning, and breathe of Gallowshiels to quell the turbulent Haigs of 

 again the pure air of the hills in the afternoon. Bcmersyde. It was not made a parish, however, 



cays. 



ever be associated with the name of Dr Douglas, 

 who was long the parish minister, and was in 

 reality the founder of its prosperity. As a baronial 

 residence, Galashiels is known to have existed 

 early in the fourteenth century, and in 141 6 

 Archibald, Earl of Douglas, issued from his tower 

 els 

 It 

 till the year 1660, when it was formed by the 

 junction of Boldside, in the county of Selkirk, and 

 Lindean, in the county of Roxburgh. Robert 

 Douglas was ordained pastor of the parish in 

 the year 1770 ; and after a singularly useful career. 



Hawick, in 1757, could be reached with difficulty 



in two days by the young student, Mr Somer- 



ville, when summoned to his father's death-bed, 



and the road lay by Traquair, for there was no 



bridge over the Tweed from Peebles to Berwick. r • 1 r 



In our day any one may reach Hawick from during part of which he was the bosom friend ot 



Sir Waher Scott, Dr Douglas died full of years 

 and honours in 1820. 



In the year 1770 Galashiels was a mere village, 

 in which there was only one slated house, besides 

 the manse, and the district was otherwise in a 

 very backward condition. The whole population 

 of the parish was then less than 800 ; it is now 

 about as many thousands. It was a small 

 colony of weavers, many of them were also 

 " bonnet-lairds," but they had no money and no 

 spirit of improvement. In 1775 only 722 stones 



Edinburgh in little more than a couple of hours. 

 As we emerge through the long section at Tyne- 

 head into the valley of the Gala, we think of the 

 Selkirk carrier plodding along, sometimes in the 

 bed of the river, sometimes over the untrodden 

 bent, and we are reminded of the lines — 



" Had you seen this road before it was made, 

 Yoti would lift up your hands, and bless General Wade." 



First the turnpike, and then the railroad has 

 been made, and many great improvements be- 

 sides. Even within living memory the extent of of wool were manufactured, and it was all done 

 cultivated land has widely extended ; and though 

 the soil is cold and the hills steep and stony, the 



results of energy and enterprise are apparent m 

 the waving grain, even to the lofty hill tops. 

 Hardly any district of Scotland has progressed 

 so rapidly in agriculture as the hills of Gala 

 Water, and we may some day describe more 



with common cards and wheels, the cloth when 

 finished costing 3s. a-yard. But the young 

 minister gave a stimulus to industry, and even 

 advanced money for the purchase of machinery, 

 one result of which was, that in 1790 the con- 

 sumption of wool had increased to 2916 stones, 

 from which cloth at 5s. the yard was manufac- 



